Introduction

This is a small utility application that enables you to edit string resources from multiple different resource files together inside one single data grid.

Background

When translating the resources of a .NET application into other languages, the biggest and most difficult task for me was to translate string resources:

The recommended way (at least what I know) is to create one single .RESX file for every language you want the strings to be translated to. I.e. one "Resources.resx" for neutral/English, one "Resources.de.resx" for German, one "Resources.fr.resx" for French, etc.

Since I had to duplicate the resource keys into each RESX file, I often did not manage to keep the resource keys synchronal among all RESX files.

This is where the idea for this tool came up: Take all RESX files, merge their resource keys and display the resource values side by side in one editable data grid.

How to use the tool (simple version)

1.) Create your resource files in Visual Studio .NET 2005 as you usually do

Add a resource file for each language you want to support and place them in the "Properties" folder of your project.

Keep the naming schema "Resources.<language>.resx", e.g. "Resources.fr-ch.resx" for Swiss with French language. The following screenshot is an example for English and German.

English and German language resources

2.) Start Zeta Resource Editor and open the resource files

Next, simply start Zeta Resource Editor and open the files you want to edit in parallel.

Opening two resource files and load them into Zeta Resource Editor

3.) Edit the resources and save them

You could either edit the cells in the grid directly by selecting and pressing F2 or, for a better overview, select a cell in the grid and then edit the details in the details view at the bottom of the window.

4.) Save and compile

How to use the tool (enhanced version with projects)

Starting march 2008, I added the concept of "projects". Projects are XML files with the ".zreproj" file extension that store 1..n so called "file groups" of RESX files that you want to edit together.

The idea is that you usually have a Visual Studio .NET solution that has multiple projects with multiple RESX files. Instead of opening them one by one inside Zeta Resource Editor, you once create a project inside Zeta Resource Editor and all the resources files you want to edit.

Later you simple open the Zeta Resource Editor project and double click the individual files to edit them.

To use projects, simply select Create New Project from the Projects main menu.

Dialog to create a new project

Once you have created a new project, it is being displayed in the main window on the left side. Right click the root node and select Add file group to project to add a new file group with multiple RESX files to the project:

Right-clicking the project to add files

Then select the apropriate files and they will appear in the project list:

Project list with one added file group with two individual files

Simply double click the file group to edit the files inside the grid in Zeta Resource Editor.

Epilog

Other Tools

I must admit that I am not an expert regarding translation/localization/globalization tools.

Doing lots of Internet searches, trying different tools, all of them seems to do their own kind of hand algorithms and behaviors.

But what I wanted was to do it my way, respectively the way that Visual Studio .NET 2005 does it.

So I do hope my approach isn't that naive but rather a small pragmatic tool to aid me (and hopefully others) managing the hassles of translating string resources.

If you do know other tools, preferably free ones, that do the same or even better than this one I presented you here, please post the hyperlinks below in the comments section!

History

2012-02-22 - Updated the binary setup. Small fix to allow translation even when no project is loaded.

2011-12-31 - Updated the binary setup. Adjusted the Microsoft Bing translation API binding to the new version 2. Please be aware that you now have to purchase a key from Microsoft to continue using Microsoft Bing Translate.

2011-12-22 - Updated the binary setup. Adjusted the Google translation API binding to the new version 2. Please be aware that you now have to purchase a key from Google to continue using Google Translate.

2011-06-14 - Updated the binary setup. Fixed an issue when adding new resources and letting them automatically translate. Optimized away some more pixels in the main window to have more height.

2011-05-14 - Updated the binary setup. The Excel export wizard now allows to directly send exported files to one or multiple e-mail receivers. This is done through our free Zeta Uploader service.

2011-04-20 - Updated the binary setup. Some minor adjustments to the automatic translation. The lists now only show those languages that the currently selected translation provider (Microsoft Bing or Google) actually support.

2011-04-02 - Updated the binary setup. Migrated back from .NET 4 to .NET 2 to reach a broader number of users (those who cannot upgrade to .NET 4). Reduced the download file size of the setup by 5 MB.

2011-03-14 - Updated the binary setup and the source download. Fixed an issue with translation through Bing Translator with unsupported languages.

2011-03-06 - Updated the binary setup and the source download. Added a right-click grid context menu item to delete the contents of a row for selected languages.

2011-02-08 - Fixed an issue with the new snapshot functionality when exporting only modified texts. Thanks to Colm.

2011-02-01 - Updated the binary setup and the source download. Added experimental support for the Excel export option "Only export texts that were modified since the last export". This required to store a kind of history of previous values. I solved it by automatically creating a companion SQLite database (*.zredb) for every project file (*.zreproj). It is all done automatically and in the background, just in case you wonder where the file comes from. If you have added your project file to SVN/CSV/GIT/TFS/etc. please also add the database file.

2010-08-08 - Updated the binary setup and the source download. Added the ability to choose the translation service when automatically translating resources. Currently, Google Translate and Microsoft Bing are supported.

2010-07-26 - Updated the binary setup and the source download. Added an option to export the comments column with to the Excel export wizard. Please note that I currently have no plans to add an import function of the comments column.

2010-07-20 - Updated the binary setup and the source download. Fixed an issue when exporting to multiple Excel document files. Added more warnings to the Excel export wizard. Updated to use the new Microsoft .NET Framework 4.

2010-07-10 - Updated the binary setup and the source download. Added "en-US" as the default neutral language if none is specified via the project settings. Simplified the right-click popup context menus in the project tree. Now, only the relevant options are displayed, depending on the type of item you right-clicked in the tree.

2010-06-12 - Updated the binary setup and the source download. Rewritten larger parts of the Microsoft Office Excel export and import routines.
The export wizard has more options resulting in a more flexible and more natural, real-world-aware way of letting Zeta Resource Editor generate your Excel files.
The import wizard is now capable of handling a broader range of input files in terms of column layouts. In addition an explanation dialog was added, describing how an Excel file should look like in order to import successfully.

2010-05-30 - Updated the binary setup and the source download. Added several new options to the Excel export wizard. Now you can generate multiple Excel files (based on file groups and/or languages) with one single export run.

2010-05-19 - Updated the binary setup and the source download. Allowed the Quick Access Toolbar to be persisted. Fixed an issue when editing multiple file groups. Thanks to user "Member 802361" for detecting and resolving the issue!

2010-05-14 - Updated the binary setup and the source download. Fixed an issue when editing multiple file groups. Thanks to user "Member 802361" for detecting and resolving the issue!

2010-05-10 - Updated the binary setup and the source download. Added the ability to hide completely translated rows. Added a color legend to the options dialog that shows the meaning of the special colors in the grid.

2010-03-16 - Updated the binary setup and the source download. Added support for coloring NULL values in cells.

2010-03-09 - I've added a "Donate 1 USD" button to the toolbar in the binary setup. You can hide this button in the program options (third ribbon tab page). I hope you don't mind.

2010-02-26 - Modified the binary setup. Fixed an issue when exporting and translating languages. Implemented grid filtering (but not yet persistent). Changed grid column headers caption from resource file names to language codes, which seem to be a more natural way of naming.

2010-02-24 - Modified the binary setup and the source code. Added support for configuring an HTTP proxy server for all outgoing HTTP requests like e.g. the translation service.

2010-02-21 - Modified the binary setup and the source code. It is now possible to edit not just one file group inside the grid but also multiple file groups at once. Simply double-click on the project or a project folder in the tree (This feature is currently in Beta stage; your feedback is very welcome!).

2010-01-15 - Modified the binary setup and the source code. Added ability to display the comments of the first resource file in the editor grid (read and write). Activate this option in the project settings Fixed issues with automatic translations. All changes were done by user "TheMegaLoser".

2010-01-14 - Updated the source download to match the latest binary setup. Due to its size, the source download is now hosted on Google Code.

2010-01-04 - Modified the binary setup, enhanced the Excel export and import to make it more usable for external translators/translations. See my weblog article for details and a screenshot.

2009-12-15 - Minor modifications to the binary setup, updated the translation functions to work with Google's recent change in their translation pages.

2009-10-31 - Minor modifications to the binary setup. As of request, I updated the source code download (at the top of this article). Please note that you need to have an installed license of the DevExpress WinForms components in order to successfully compile the sources.

2009-08-25Updated the binary setup again. Rewrote the language detection routine that detects a language from a file name. Now configurable through the project settings. Added function "Create new files" to create missing resource files for a complete project (or a project folder) with just a few clicks.

2009-08-08 Updated the binary setup again. Added the long-requested (including by myself!) ability to create new files from within Zeta Resource Editor:
This is done by copying from an existing file and replacing all the existing texts. Also included serveral minor bug fixes. Added the ability to show/hide the complete project tree panel (the left part of the main window) for better screen usage on smaller monitors.

2009-07-12Updated the binary setup again. Introduced what I call "Project Folders" - virtual folders that enables you to organize larger numbers of file groups into separate units to keep the project manageable. Also added move (up/down) and drag and drop to the tree.

2009-07-04Updated the binary setup again. Also updated the source download. Changes: Fixed reported bugs. Added first version of Microsoft Office Excel export and import (Your feedback is very welcome.

2009-06-27Updated the binary setup and fixed several bugs reported directly to me and below here in the forum. Added keyboard shortcuts to work again. Unfortunately the previous version broke the update mechanism, so you will get an error when clicking the "Update available" button. Sorry for that, I fixed it now.

This version is primarily a complete rewrite of the GUI. I hope you
like it! I throw out all standard Windows Forms components and used the
GUI components of DevExpress. The main reason for the rewrite was to
have a strong foundation for doing more complex UI stuff (like grid
filtering, exporting) in the future.

Changed the main window to use ribbons.

Added modern Windows Vista compatible icons.

Added a news area to the main windows. You can turn this of in the
application's options dialog window.

Added some initial spell checking functionality (configurable in the
project settings) with support of OpenOffice dictionaries.

2009-04-26Updated the binary setup again. Changes: Integrated Google Translation API calls to automatically translate from one language to another language (See the "Edit" main menu). Also included is a general-purpose translation window. Did some rather simple, but hopefully useful introduction screencasts.

2009-03-31Updated the binary setup again. Changes: The state of a translated file group is now shown both in the tree view as well as in the upper left corner of the editing grid.

2009-02-08Updated the binary setup again. Changes: Adjusted the display of file groups in the left tree. Enhanced and corrected the coloring in the grid. New color gray to show completely empty rows among all languages.

2009-02-08Updated the binary setup. Again some minor fixes in how the settings are stored. Added a German translation for the whole GUI, which is automatically chosen if you are on a German OS. Added project option for not storing empty resource strings (useful for fall back to the default language)

2008-12-29Updated the binary setup. Some minor fixes, adjustments of the generated group names and a neat little function to import a complete folder tree with all its resource files with one single operation.

2008-08-09 On commenter's request, I also published this project as a CodePlex project.

2008-04-11Maintenance release to fix a small bug when dealing with misformed RESX-files.

2007-06-24Added searching/finding (Ctrl+F) and "Find next". Added coloring cells: The read-only column zero is colored blue, except when the number of formatting placeholders (you known these "{0}", "{3:F2}", etc. don't match between the languages; then the first column becomes red. An empty cell gets colored yellow to easier spot things to translate.

2007-06-17Maintenance release. Adding small convenience functions like a LRU list. Fixing some minor UI bugs. Please note the this is not yet the major update to expect in the future that will include all your great suggestions from the comments below.

2007-01-11Fixed a bug when saving/loading. Thanks to Rudolf Jan Heijink for telling us! In fact, Markus wrote several large parts of the loading/saving engine new.

Share

About the Author

Uwe does programming since 1989 with experiences in Assembler, C++, MFC and lots of web- and database stuff and now uses ASP.NET and C# extensively, too. He has also teached programming to students at the local university.

In his free time, he does climbing, running and mountain biking. Recently he became a father of a cute boy.

Comments and Discussions

Hello and thanks for sharing this great product. I wanted to report that using ALT + [ASCII Code], e.g. ALT + 129 for ü, is not working for entering special characters. For users who rely on this method as the only way they know to enter special characters, this bug is very inconvenient. This method was working in earlier versions. Specifically, I know it was working in version 2.1.0.87 and it was not working in version 2.1.0.93. Somewhere in between those two versions the functionality stopped working.

Using the ascii codes does not work in the grid, or in the bottom panel. It does work in the Quick Translate dialog. I think the ALT shortcut keys might be interfering? I'm also seeing that the shortcut letters that are displayed when you hit ALT will often persist after switching to another application and just float there on top of the other app. You have to switch back to the Zeta Editor window and press ALT to make them go away. That bug is obviously not important but I thought it might be a helpful detail. I'm using Windows 7.